Apple TV to stream video from laptop

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aboylikedave

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#91675 18-Oct-2011 21:57

Hi there

I am using Apple TV (running XBMC) to play video files (films etc.) wirelessly from my laptop. This is absolutely fantastic and I highly recommend it as a setup.

However, for some files it stops and starts buffering.

My wireless router (EDIT: MODEM/ROUTER!)is the Dynalink RTA1035W which is wireless G (and has been fantastic).

Does this sort of network traffic require an upgraded wireless router?

Cheers

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chiefie

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#534979 18-Oct-2011 22:09

Yes, get at least 150N or ideally 300N.

Cisco/Linksys E4200 is great but I'm using Apple AirPort Extreme.

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chiefie

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#534981 18-Oct-2011 22:10

Your other option is HomePlug Ethernet over Powerline with 200Mbps.

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Ragnor

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#534982 18-Oct-2011 22:13

Yeah you will probably be hitting the real world throughput limitations of 802.11G.

Tom_Rush

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#534990 18-Oct-2011 22:42

An 802.11g WiFi should be able to handle 720p or HD videos OK.

You just need a good/stable WiFi signal.

As your signal becomes weaker, so to the bandwidth drops.

It is mooted you need in the range of 12-15Mbps (Megabits/second) to stream a quality HD video (720p).
This can go higher if we're talking about Full-HD (1080p).

The 802.11g radio supports a raw 54Mbps signal.

If you have two PC/Laptops connected to the 802.11g WiFi you can use the Microsoft command prompt ftp to copy a large file between the two PC/Laptops and this will give you a final transfer rate of the average throughput.
It's just an indication and I'm sure there are other ways.

I suggest a binary transfer and use verbose (gives you the final transfer rate) if you do this.

If your laptop has an 802.11n WiFi card, then you may see some benefit by upgrading to a 802.11n modem/router.

Just as something to go by and a vague indication, my Linksys E4200 router with Tomato firmware achieves the following throughput:

On 2.4Ghz I get 8.9MB/s (~71Megabits/second) ftp transfer rate at 15 metres at 108Mbps connect speed.

One can also use the inSIDDer application to check/monitor that you have a stable connection and there are no conflicts on the WiFi channel you are using.

Just a few thoughts.

**EDIT**

Oh and just a quick note, 802.11g will probably only have a maximum data throughput of approx. 20Mbits/second (2.5MBytes/sec) so unless you've got a bees knees signal, 720p on a VERY good day, is probably the best you can expect.

Personally I'd go for a 300Mbps 802.11n modem/router.

Mark

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#535057 19-Oct-2011 09:42

Hiya,

I had a bit of fun and games finding a nice wireless router that supported Apples "Bonjour" service correctly, my original Netgear which worked great got fried so I tried :

Linksys - didn't work :-(
Belkin - worked but dropped after minutes :-(
Dlink - worked but dropped after minutes:-(
TPlink - worked (kept it!)

That was about 8 months ago, so hopefully they've sorted it now but it was definetly a router issue, but do google the make and model you are looking for along with it's compatibilty with AppleTV and Bonjour.

chiefie

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#535060 19-Oct-2011 09:53

On thing that Apple AirPort Extreme doesn't do is UPnP (#sadface) however, it does Bonjour flawlessly. Having said that, you can enable a couple of ports for Bonjour and AppleTV to work on any router. It's easy and the rest is just bliss.

Get a decent ADSL modem, and utilise E4200 for wireless router. Otherwise Linksys Wireless N Dual Band (http://dicksmith.co.nz/product/XH1386/linksys-wireless-n-dual-band-modem-router).

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chiefie

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#535063 19-Oct-2011 09:58

From Apple discussion forum: Need a Gateway (modem/router combo) that Works with Bonjour https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2436005?threadID=2436005&tstart=225

Within it, a link to an Apple Document "Well known" TCP and UDP ports used by Apple software products you must open the ports (on the Router's internal firewall) 5297, 5298 & 5353 for Bonjour to work. http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1629

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aboylikedave

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#535214 19-Oct-2011 16:27

Thanks - at this point I think I'll lauch into the 'recommend a modem/router' thread separately

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froob

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#535246 19-Oct-2011 17:08

In this case, upgrading to wireless N might not make much of a difference for you. I'm running a second generation Apple TV, and like the iPhone and iPad, its wireless N is limited to 65Mbps. This is only just above the maximum rate of 54Mbps for wireless G, and probably wouldn't equate to much of a real world difference.

I'm not sure whether the first gen Apple TV has this same limitation.

See this link for details on the iPad's slower wireless N, which probably also applies to the Apple TV second gen: http://www.sniffwifi.com/2010/04/apple-i-love-ya-but-youre-shady-another.html

Edit: Having said that, if you're streaming from a laptop wirelessly to the Apple TV, or sharing the wireless with other devices, more bandwidth never hurts!

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